We all slept the best we had in ages, Gray, the African explorer, thinks it’s because we are camping, personally and more practically, I think it’s because it’s a lot cooler inland, than on the coast. After breakfast, we were back to running the gauntlet on the Tan Zam Highway.
This is really déjà vu, as for the first time this trip, we retrace our steps. For the next 4 days we will be travelling the same route back across Tanzania and northern Malawi. Traffic wise, we were not as lucky as the day before and were witness to numerous serious truck accidents; this is not something one becomes immune to seeing, it makes my hair stand on end. Robs and Kirst bury themselves in the novels they are reading but Gareth grips the end of his seat and with wide eyes cringes as the oncoming bus or truck passes within inches of us.
If it wasn’t for the trucks, this would be an awesome road; we meandered our way over the pass through the Udzungwa Mountains, the Little Ruaha River in the valley below and the golden baboons on the side of the road. At the base of the pass are the baobab forests, which then make way for the green forests of the upper mountainous slopes.
We decided to stop at the ‘Old Farm House’ on Kisolanza Farm, a 250km trip, rather than push onto Mbeya, 590km away. This really is an awesome stop over point for people travelling this way. The camp sites are set in the bush and they are clean and tranquil, the staff are helpful and friendly but best of all is the food.
During the camp set up we had a bit of a disaster, Ga left my lap top open on the seat, with his ear plugs in, Gray moved the car and knocked the screen – breaking both screen and ear plugs. We tried downloading the last few days of saved blogs and compressed pics onto the external hard drive but with no success. We had had limited network, so we had not been able to post for the last few days and now we were unable to access the files, not to mention we were now unable to retrieve e-mails etc. I was thrilled, grrrrrrrr.
After settling in, unable to sort out our daily admin, we headed off to the bar. This is made out of mud and thatch, like the restaurant. For the first time in Tanzania, I tried the local spirit, Konyagi, with tonic – it’s not bad at all, tastes like a mixture of gin and vodka. The kids soon followed suit (not Robs), Kirst prefers hers with Sprite. We have to be fairly careful on what we order in Africa: lemonade produces water with chunks of lemons, Robs favourite Kola-tonic and lemonade produces a bottle of coke, a bottle of tonic water and a Sprite.
It got considerably colder here as the sun went down and a cold wind blew through the trees. This sent us back to the trailer to find our winter clothes, naturally packed at the bottom. Then it was back to the restaurant for one of Florien, the French Chefs, delicious meals. After dinner we spent some time gazing up at the stars, with no electricity and lights, the Milky Way and constellations were breath taking. Eventually, the cold sent us under our duvet and the kids into their sleeping bags. Just as Gray and I had settled in, Robs called to say that there was a bush baby in the tree above their tent, so Gray and I climbed out the roof top and watched the little creature moving through the branches. Just as we had settled back into our roof top, Kirst asked where her sleeping bag was, of course it was in the trailer under us, so we had to climb out again open the trailer and get her sleeping bag out. The way the kids are going we might really be looking forward to an empty nest.
Dinner in the mud hut
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